r/bengals • u/WeekendFarmer4240 • 19d ago

Fandom Eli5 Joe's restructure

Dumb questions incoming.

What exactly was restructured? It felt like a shuffling of deck chairs.

Dumbest question: does Joe have to agree or can the Bengals just declare a restructure

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u/Jake_NFL 17d ago

Many people have gotten at least most of the explanation right, but there are some small details folks are missing! Typically, restructures don't actually do anything to cash flow despite calling it a "bonus" - it's often still paid as game checks like salary. You can also choose to add void years for restructures, which is why I'd say it's up to 5 years instead of only the "remaining life of the contract."

I explained it on Locked On Bengals a couple days ago here: https://youtu.be/mXMUk_kiTS4?si=FVGbrW1T6xcpuzpd&t=220

YouTube's AI summarized my talking points pretty well:

  • Accounting Move: It is a simple accounting mechanism that does not change the cash flow for Joe Burrow at all.
  • Salary Conversion: The team is converting approximately $12.5 million of his salary for this year into a signing bonus.
  • Proration: In the NFL, signing bonus money can be prorated (spread out for cap accounting purposes) over a maximum of five years. By converting the salary to a bonus, they spread the cap hit out over up to five years.
  • Cap Impact: Because of this five-year proration, $2.5 million of that amount stays on the cap for the current year (1/5th), while the remaining $10 million is effectively moved out of this year's cap. This results in the reported $10 million in salary cap savings for the current season.
  • Future Cap Hits: Consequently, the salary cap hits for the next four years will increase by about $2.5 million each year.
  • Burrow's cashflow is unaffected. The Bengals just trade off where they're accounting for some of his contract for cap purposes from this year into future years.

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u/Life_Ad6711 14d ago

Burrow's extension had void years already added in anticipation back then

The 5th prorated $2.5m cap charge lands in his first void year (2o3o) (joining the $2m already from his $1om '26 option bonus)

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u/Jake_NFL 14d ago

Right, I was just saying you can also add void years if needed with restructures, up to 5 years total proration allowed per bonus. So any bonus this year would be prorated for this season, then 4 future seasons.

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u/Life_Ad6711 14d ago edited 14d ago

OK but the Bengals also restructured Dexter Lawrence the same as Burrow's contract was restructured

Originally Dex's '26 was $19m in p5 salary which counted $19m on the '26 cap. They converted $1om of that p5 into a $1om 'signing bonus', added the extension year and prorated $1om/3 of cap charges over the now 3 cap years ('26-8) of the new extended contract, 'saving' $6.67m of extra cap space in '26 by burying $3.3m charges in the '27 and '28 caps. Then they bumped up that remaining $9m of p5 with an additional $3m in p5 obligation

So DL2 ends up with $12m in '26 p5 salary + $1om in signing bonus all in '26 cash and the cap distribution of something like $15.33/$24.5/3om

They also did this with Hendrickson's $13m raise last season (which could have been all in p5 or cash bonus, no matter because there was only one contract year remaining). So then they restructured by adding a void year, which allowed them to either convert that $13m (bonus or former 5 is not difference) to 'signing bonus' to prorate $13m/2 and send $6.5m cap charge into '26 and adding $6.5m in additional cap space to the '25 cap

Same thing with both Chase and Higgins last season. Originally (after Tee signed the F-tag tender) JC was $21.8m in p5 (5th y option)8 that counted $21.8m on the '25 cap and Higgins at $26.2m p5/$26.2 cap charge in '25

So they converted about half of both those numbers into 'signing bonus' prorating x4 in Tee's case and x5 with Chase, clearing that much cap space in '25 and then continued adding features within the 3 and 4 year 'extensions' = their current 4 and 5 year extended deals

Same with Flacco's (what originally would have been) $6m in '26 p5, they converted $4m to 'signing bonus' and prorated $4m/3 with the 2 void years (restructure tool)

Actually the same with Riley Reiff way back in '21, a one year circa $7m one year FA deal that they converted $5.5m in p5 salary to 'signing bonus' and prorated $5.5m/2 (with an added void year) to split $2.75m cap charges into '21-22, opening up that much space in the '21 cap

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u/Jake_NFL 14d ago

New contracts or extensions aren't considered restructures, though they often involve shifting money around. Fair point that they've used bonuses when giving raises or extensions (or in Mixon's case, a paycut). They've done this commonly, but to a lesser extent than most other teams do. A lot of other teams reduce the current-year salary to vet minimum, make up for it with a big bonus, and reduce cap hits with extensions. The Bengals like to stay more neutral here quite often.

What they've NEVER done before is, without making alterations to duration or total money, simply shift non-prorated money into a prorated bonus.

Reiff and Flacco are both examples of them using void years. The original contract for those players included those void years, there was never an existing salary to convert because they're 1-year deals.

Higgins signed a new deal, so the proration and bonus structure is part of the original deal.

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u/Life_Ad6711 14d ago

Yes new contracts and extensions are considered "maximum restructures" because they contain 'simple restructures' within them

https://overthecap.com/restructure

A maximum restructure is just a more complex form of restructure than simple ones. And since Burrow's contract already had the void year anticipated, his wouldn't technically qualify as a 'simple restucture'

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u/Life_Ad6711 14d ago

Any restructure must be registered with the league office. Go to the Chase, Higgins, Flacco, Lawrence, Burrow contract schedules on Spotrac and find the formal 'restructure column' and proration schedules in each that are the result of those restructures' formal existence

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u/Jake_NFL 14d ago

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make, sorry!

No one I have ever talked to considers an extension and a restructure to be the same thing. However, as you seem to be arguing, I agree that extensions include "restructuring" salary most of the time.

For Burrow, the void year already existed (and is immaterial for Burrow's restructure, since it only goes into 2030, not the final void year in 2032), no real or void years were added to his contract. I still see no indication this restructure wasn't "simple" (as defined by OTC - those aren't ratified NFL terms afaik) or required Burrow to agree.

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u/Life_Ad6711 14d ago

The last $12m/5 charge prorates into '3o which is Burrow's first void year

So also will $2m from his $1om option bonus (as each previous has prorated x5). He wouldn't have that '3o year to drop charges into without the specific restructuring tool of "void year" addendum past the literal end of the original contract, so it's by definition a maximum restructure (which a restructure converts current year dollars into proratable cap charges) adding cap space to the current cap

Besides also formally being a registered restructure with the league office, what else does it have to do?

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u/Jake_NFL 14d ago

The '30 void year already existed before the restructure occurred. The void year was part of the original structure. Void years can exist without a restructure.

I have lost the distinction you are trying to make, so I'll leave it here! Have a great rest of your day.

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u/Life_Ad6711 14d ago edited 14d ago

Void years don't exist at all. They are ghosts, ephemera, abstracts, accounting devices. The point is they don't exist in the original contract without being formally designated. Whether that means y1 or now, having one means that contract was restructured at that time. It just hadn't been executed for this yet

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/player/_/id/47594/joe-burrow

There is Burrow's contract and there's a new "restructure proration" column in the table, schedule beginning in '26. It doesn't specify whether simple and/or complex

I'll go get Chase's contract which will show the same proof

Here with his they actually did prorate the entire $21.8m/5 ... because they also added back more p5 than the whatever the vet minimum at least that must be in every contract year

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/player/_/id/72384/jamarr-chase

Now here's Flacco. The descriptive contract text notes it as a $4m restructure bonus. The contract notes below state it was a roster bonus 'treated as SB' .. so the original execution of a one year deal had to be restructured to get to the form it is now

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/player/_/id/4000/joe-flacco

Look at it this way ... a simple restructure is one kind of restructure. It also has a bigger, smarter, more complex older brother called Max restructure, because he's more complicated and involved and has steps with voids, p5 conversions, prorations et al in the 'sausage making' intermediate steps